Anyone cover their own Health Insurance?

This is a discussion on Anyone cover their own Health Insurance? within the Off Topic & Humor Discussion forums, part of the The Back Porch category; I recently received a job offer where they don't have a company health care plan. They reimburse up to a certain amount and the employees ...

Anyone cover their own Health Insurance?

I recently received a job offer where they don't have a company health care plan. They reimburse up to a certain amount and the employees go out and get their own or ride on their spouses plans.

I'm fairly young, healthy, and never go to the doctor. But, being very active, accidents can happen. I'm wondering who else may have had to shop around for their own plan and if they could offer up any advice.

"Run for your life from the man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another-their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun."

Any self employed person knows your dilemma. It is nice that the company pays your health insurance. This started back in World War II when there were wage controls. One way around this was for the company to pick up the cost of the employees health insurance. The idea kind of stuck. Until now. Because health insurance costs are so expensive, some companies, like yours, are electing not to do it.

So where does that leave you? Well, with no insurance. As a relative young person, the chance of getting a deadly disease is low. So what you probably want is catastrophic coverage.

Many companies offer this. My personal coverage has a $7500 deductible. It covers all doctor's visits like others do, at about $20 a visit. However, everything else is on me...until I reach the $7500. So if I need blood work, x-rays, etc, I pay for them. The difference in premium between a $500 deductible and a $7500 deductible was like $300/month. If I do not get sick, I save $3600. That will pay for a lot of medical tests. Even with me going to the ER once this year, I am still ahead.

And by the way, my policy also covers accidents. If my injury is due to an accident, they waive the deductible.

Yeah....since I am self-employed I pay all of my own healthcare insurance....and it blows. The best consolation is that I can be my own boss, so I guess it's a pretty good trade-off. I am fairly young as well, and since I've been paying my own way for insurance, I've decided to quit playing summer softball, inline skating, etc.

I did for awhile, I found the best deal was blue cross. You might want to strongly consider a health savings account type of plan, it will save you a lot of money in the short term, and you still will only get hit for a few thousand should something major happen to you.